The Woman in Black: A Ghost Story
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Book Cover
Paperback
Recommended By
Julie Carter and Heather.
Planning on Reading
Ivy.
Book Details
Written by Susan Hill and John Lawrence.
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($15.95)
Editorial Review (from Amazon.com)
What real reader does not yearn, somewhere in the recesses of his or her heart, for a really literate, first-class thriller - one that chills the body with foreboding of dark deeds to come, but warms the soul with perceptions and language at once astute and vivid? In other words, a ghost story by Jane Austen.Austen we cannot, alas, give you, but Susan Hill's remarkable Woman In Black comes as close as the late twentieth century is likely to provide. Set on the obligatory English moor, on an isolated causeway, the story has as its hero one Arthur Kipps, an up-and-coming young solicitor who has come north to attend the funeral and settle the estate of Mrs. Alice Drablow of Eel Marsh House. The routine formalities he anticipates give way to a tumble of events and secrets more sinister and terrifying than any nightmare: the rocking chair in the nursery of the deserted Eel Marsh House, the eerie sound of pony and trap, a child's scream in the fog, and, most dreadfully, and for Kipps most tragically, the woman in black.
The Woman In Black is both a brilliant exercise in atmosphere and controlled horror and a delicious spine-tingler - proof positive that that neglected genre, the ghost story, isn't dead after all.
User Reviews (2) Login or create an account to write a review.
Julie Carter thinks this book is Good.
This is an effective ghost story with a very traditional feel. No blood and guts, just atmosphere.
WriterDan thinks this book is Worth Reading.
So, this was an interesting departure from my normal fare. On the whole, I found it painfully slow. Hill does a decent job of creating suspense in a few scenes, but misses the needed mystery and progressive tension building that I think could have helped out this book in many different ways. This book, which is fairly similar in structure to another "scary" story that I read recently (Fear, by L. Ron Hubbard) was one that I was fairly frustrated with the book by the time I got to the end and suddenly everything worked (this one more so than in Fear). I think that with some more development this could really have been one whopper of a good ghost story. Especially back in the 80's when it was published, but even so now. It is a relatively short novel though, and so can be read an enjoyed quickly. Looking for a decent ghost story? Check it out.